Food travels thousands of miles before it reaches customers

IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.

Today’s food travels thousands of miles before it reaches customers. Is this a positive or negative trend?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer:Nowadays food travels hundreds of thousand miles before it reaches consumers. Consumers are no longer dependent on food that has been grown locally. Day by day, the locavore community tends to be accustomed to buying food produced from all over the globe. However, views differ notably when it comes to the issue whether it is a positive trend or not. While this trend has some benefits to the consumers, I consider it as a negative trend for several reasons.

For a start, it is true that the trend has many advantages to the consumers. First of all, this trend offers a variety of food choices consists of food grown all over the world. For instance, Japanese sushi has become a ubiquitous commodity in U.S that is once exotic among American circles. On the same token, culinary exchanges can lead to calming the tension among the nations.

On the flip side, the trend has enormous negative impact on environment. This is because food travelling certainly needs huge fossil fuels that would contribute to global warming to the great extent. In addition to this, long-distance food will eventually damage our rural economies as small food business and peasants become the most marginal link in the supply chain. Besides, locally grown foods are much fresher than long-distance food. Because, it is harvested at the peak hour of ripeness. Local food does not have to be refrigerated, fumigated, or packaged for long shelf-life and thousand miles hauling. Consequently, it can retain its nutritious value better than long-distance food.

In fine, the trend is a double-edged sword. It has many advantages and possesses great harms at the same time. As far as I am concerned that the negative impact of this trend outweighs its positive sides.